Michigan

Wings-Bolts wrap-up

The Tampa Bay Lightning were less than impressed with their effort in their 4-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night:

November 30, St. Petersburg Times: Like a deer in the headlights. That is how center Brad Richards described the Lightning during the first 35 minutes of Thursday night's 4-2 loss to the Red Wings.

Detroit is the league's top team, and it plays with confidence at Joe Louis Arena. But Richards said Tampa Bay didn't do much, especially early, to break a losing streak that reached six games.

"If you don't want the puck, you can't win," Richards said. "We didn't want the puck till it was too late. It's not the system. It's not the game plan or anything like that. They had the puck the first 35 minutes. It's pretty hard to play if you don't have the puck."
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"We couldn't put the puck where we had a chance to get it," right wing Marty St. Louis said. "Once you get it in the neutral zone, they're right on top of you. They force you to move the puck but not where you want to. You don't have a choice."

The Bolts saw some positives in their performance, which was their sixth straight defeat:

[L]eft wing Vinny Prospal said the best thing to come out of the game was, "At least we lost with some kind of pride."

November 30, Tampa Tribune: "In the second period at least we started to play with a little bit more confidence, a little bit more jam, and it showed," left wing Vinny Prospal said. "We ended up with some good opportunities. At least the positive that we can take out of this game is that we didn't give up or finish the game like we did in Chicago."

Still, the Bolts admitted that they were outclassed:

November 29, Associated Press: "This is a good team. Puck possession-wise, they killed us," Tampa Bay's Martin St. Louis said. "It's a tough way to play when you don't have the puck against a good team like that."

The Red Wings took a great deal of pride in the fact that they were able to hold Tampa Bay to one shot in the first period:

Hudler opened the scoring 3:24 into the game with his sixth goal, tipping in a pass from Chris Chelios. The Red Wings outshot the Lightning 17-1 in the first period. That's the fewest shots Tampa Bay has had in a period this season.
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Osgood had no problem with the inactivity.

"I didn't mind that," he said. "If they have only one shot, it's a pretty good chance they're not going to score in the period."
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The Red Wings also held NHL scoring leader Vincent Lecavalier and St. Louis, who is in the top 15, pointless.

"They've got good players," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "You have to be disciplined and have great goaltending."

November 30, Detroit News: "They played last night and things didn't go the way they wanted (in a 5-1 loss in Chicago)," coach Mike Babcock said. "We knew we'd have a tiger by the tail, and any time one of the best players in the league, like Lecavalier, only plays 16 minutes the night before, you know he'll be jumping. We knew getting started was going to be important and we had a lot of jump."

The victory extended an amazing run of success for goalie Chris Osgood against the Lightning. Osgood now is 16-0-0 in this career against the Lightning after making 21 saves in another impressive effort. Osgood is 12-1-1 for the season.

"Everybody is playing great -- Ozzie in net especially. You can't say enough about him," Tomas Kopecky said.
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"We did a good job against their top players," Cleary said. "We kept them to the outside. We wanted to put a lot of shot on (goalie Marc) Denis because he hasn't played much of late."

Jiri Hudler was relieved to convert on the scoring chance that gave the Wings a 1-0 lead. Just after a power play expired, Hudler dropped the puck back to Niklas Kronwall, hedged his bets and charged to the net, and tipped in a slick slap-pass from Chris Chelios:

"I was kind of worried because I saw a guy coming out of the penalty box," Hudler said. "But Chris said he saw me so I just had to make sure to put my stick on the ice."

Pavel Datsyuk was able to shake off a shot off an unlucky bounce and "post" a goal:

November 30, Detroit Free Press: Datsyuk, after hitting a goal post on an open net in the first period, got redemption in the second. His power-play goal at 4:04 gave the Wings a 2-0 cushion. Datsyuk scored his eighth goal of the season when he knocked in the rebound of a shot by Nick Lidstrom into an open net.

"I'm shooting into empty net," Datsyuk. "I have two chances. I use one."

Kopecky made it 3-0 when he scored on a breakaway at 7:39. Kopecky took a pass from Andreas Lilja, made a quick fake and fired a backhand around goaltender Marc Denis for his second career goal.

"We knew he was challenging the shots a lot, so I faked a shot and went to my backhand," Kopecky said. "We need everybody to step up. Everybody's playing great; Ozzie in the net especially. Can't say enough about him."

Hudler agreed that the Wings' forwards stepped up to fill the voids left by Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby:

"Guys stepped up," Hudler said. "Anybody on this team can score.

November 29, DetroitRedWings.com: After Tampa Bay had cut Detroit's lead to 3-1 after the second period, Dan Cleary calmed the Joe Louis Arena fans two minutes into the third. Disarray in the Tampa zone led to a hard Brett Lebda point shot, and Cleary cashed in the long rebound for the 4-1 advantage.

"I just was hoping it would pop out on that side, and I kind of just one-touched it into the net," Cleary said. "Nothing fancy. Not a Pavel (Datsyuk) goal."

Outshot by the Wings, 17-1, in the first period, Lightning coach John Tortorella mixed up his lines in the second. The trio of Brad Richards, Martin St. Louis and Lecavalier -- an old favorite from the Lightning's Stanley Cup championship in 2004 -- got Tampa Bay on the board. After Detroit lost the puck behind the net, St. Louis connected to Richards for a snapshot that beat goalie Chris Osgood high on the glove side.
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The Lightning started to pour it on late in the second, drawing a late power play. Osgood snared a Lecavalier point shot through traffic with 31 seconds left, and made another save in tight on the following shift to hold Detroit's 3-1 lead going into the third period. Osgood is now 16-0 in his career against the Lightning.

With just three minutes left in the game, Mathieu Darche deflected Shane O'Briens point shot past Osgood to settle the 4-2 score. Tampa Bay hasn't won in Detroit since January 1994.

That Osgood guy was pretty darn good:

November 30, Windsor Star: "I used to play [Tampa Bay] lots when I was in Long Island (with the New York Islanders)," Osgood said. "I had a pretty good record against them. ... Certain teams in the league you just have a good record against. I didn't realize that [I have a 16-and-0 record] until you told me. I knew I had a pretty good record, but I didn't know I hadn't lost yet."

The veteran netminder faced just one shot in the first period, a season low for the Lightning.

"I don't mind that whatsoever," Osgood said. "I took it to be a challenge. I don't mind at all. It means there's a pretty good chance they're not going to have any goals, so that's what I care most about."

Kopecky says that Osgood's presence extends to mentoring the Wings' young forwards along:

"He's been unbelievable," Kopecky said of Osgood. "He comes on the ice every practice and we shoot on him, and even during practice, he gives us tips what the goalies usually do, which just helps the young guys a lot. Right now, he's 35 (years old), but he's playing like he's 20."

Kopecky himself was simply relieved to break an extended scoring schneid:

"It was a long wait to get that first goal of the season," Kopecky said. "It was a great night. We were a couple guys short and we need the young guys to step up."

"He's got really good skill," Cleary said of Kopecky. "He's got a good shot. That's good confidence for him. It was a great move. He likes to do that in practice. He was happy, and I think we're all happy for him."

And the fact that the Wings' top line shut down the Bolts' top line didn't hurt, either:

November 30, Macomb Daily: The line of Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Holmstrom was matched up against Tampa Bay's top forward unit of Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis and Vaclav Prospal. Lecavalier won the Rocket Richard Trophy last season and St. Louis is a former MVP. The trio managed just two assists combined.

Datsyuk led Detroit with three blocked shots. Datsyuk and Zetterberg each had a team-high two takeaways with Tampa Bay totaling one takeaway.

"It brings us to the next level," said Datsyuk of playing against the opposition's top line. "You play better when you play against the best players."